HR0986 100TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY

HR0986 LRB100 21549 MST 38483 r

HOUSE RESOLUTION

WHEREAS, The mission of the Illinois Department of Child and Family Services (DCFS) is to promote prevention, child safety, permanency, and well-being by bringing the voices of Illinois children and families to the forefront and building trusting relationships; and

WHEREAS, Every child and family in Illinois deserves to live safe, happy, and healthy lives in their communities; and

WHEREAS, For 35 years, DCFS released monthly data reports of incidents of child abuse, including the number of repeat calls to the agency for children who have already been found to be abused, and data to indicate the number of those reports that were "priority one" cases where children are in immediate physical danger; and

WHEREAS, That data has been necessary for the general public to understand child abuse trends; and

WHEREAS, DCFS ended its 35-year practice of voluntarily reporting data about child abuse to the public in July of 2017, and subsequently refused to comply with requests from advocates to release the data; and

WHEREAS, DCFS failed to respond to requests for the data from former wards of the State (now called Youth in Care) for eight months, withholding that information until an official FOIA request was made; and

WHEREAS, The data released from the FOIA request, though incomplete, is alarming and shows that the number of children re-abused after DCFS involvement has skyrocketed 50% since 2015; and

WHEREAS, DCFS has publicly questioned its legal obligation to release the data; and

WHEREAS, DCFS has publicly questioned whether they are capable of creating the data reports despite having the same computer systems in place as when monthly reporting was occurring; and

WHEREAS, It is in the public interest to have updated monthly access to the data currently being withheld by DCFS; therefore, be it

RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE ONE HUNDREDTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that the Illinois Department of Child and Family Services is urged to immediately return to its 35-year precedent by resuming monthly child abuse reports and executive statistical summary reports; and be it further

RESOLVED, That suitable copies of this resolution be delivered to each member of the Illinois General Assembly, the Director of the Department of Child and Family Services, and the Office of the Governor as a testament to our unwavering commitment to improving the day-to-day lives of children and families across Illinois.